Musing about Second Life's Premium account and Basic account changes

I do not normally write about Second Life prices here. However we do utilize Second Life at times to obtain digital photography and videography for our projects, to network, for my involvement with the Trotsdale Library, various writing contests, and even some of our books (not all as the porting was an experiment to test the market in SL books) being available inside Second Life.

I am somewhat disappointed in Second Life right now.

I (Teresa Garcia as Amehana Ishtari/Arashi) have 42 groups current. Over the years there have been times I have had to pare out groups that I would have preferred to keep in order to make room for groups that I needed for administration duties for communities or for storefronts in sims that require vendor groups instead of renting out parcels that can be set to one's store group. Between Meditation/Shrine groups, the Library group, various Pony/Furry communities, storefronts, and artist/book/networking communities, my store group for Arashiryuu Productions / THG StarDragon Publishing, and a couple family/friend groups I only have space for a few shopping groups that I use to get discounts on set pieces from manufacturers I like to follow. Now the basic accounts are dropping the number of group slots available and increasing the amount it costs to go premium.

I use a basic account due to my income. Although the premium account has 70 slots I did not see a need to pay monthly for something that I wasn't certain I could always cover out of my personal expenses plus that I pay monthly for inworld rent for the store and covering the library's rent (that is my responsibility now as Zepdek has had personal issues to attend, meaning his financial contribution had to drop).

I heard about the changes first through CrimMip, a fellow admin for Nisa/Dreaming Twilight (the group whose land I normally use when obtaining Second Life originating visuals for projects). I heard about it next from Bixyl Shuftan through their blog article. There is a bit of a conversation ongoing now in the SL Newer's discord chat. Some that I have talked to see no problems with the amount of group slots, feeling they are coming no where near their cap. Others, like myself, are frustrated because they are and do not wish to switch to premium to increase their groups slots, already putting quite a bit of money into the platform through virtual land rent, market purchases, and tipping performers.

I can understand increasing prices for premium accounts. They did decrease (temporarily) land prices for those that buy land. However they lowered the amount of group slots and ofline IMs for basic accounts, a feature that theoretically costs no money. They do have to pay their developers and admins. It does put people like me in a strange spot though. Porting my clothing goods and furniture items over to an alt account is not possible due to licensing agreements of used components. Transferring stores to another account would not work due to still having to keep the same groups to rez the vendors from my main account (and then I'd end up missing payments due to notices going to another email). Asking admin duties to transfer to an alt would not work as well either due to my main account already being an established and known name, the other account not being as well known since my main alt is a prize dispersal for library based contests, who started out as an "I'm overwhelmed and want to enjoy and explore inworld but want to focus on a handful of people right now" account.

So, now I weigh and decide. Basic has dropped seven slots. If I need to jiggle groups for any other needs that arise admin group wise for communities and networking I will have to drop seven, which would include those I currently need. I also wonder how well this move will work for them. Honestly I am glad I do not work for SL or have to figure out good financial moves for their company. They have such a large user base and not many are going to be happy with price increases, especially with the fluctuation of the $L and if the monthly stipend for inworld spending that goes with a premium does not increase.

How will this impact THG StarDragon Publishing's sponsoring of the Trotsdale and Intersim Library Network? At this time I do not know. I continue paying the library's rent. I need to set aside some funds for a prize for the next contest. I need to decide whether it will be writing, art, or if I should shake things up and ask people to make reading videos or tracks. Tonight at 5 PM Pacific Illya Leonov has his music hour followed by his story hour. This week he plays chapter 10 of Past Sins, an MLP fanfic. Sundays I normally (unless ill or too inundated) read or stream, now at 5 PM Pacific and sometimes followed by other readers. How will it impact the Library, or my own store group and meditation group? With a decrease in group slots for the basic account I can guess that fewer peoplewill be getting notices of the inworld events, and overall the world will get smaller for Second Life users as they will have fewer options available to them. The work around of a Subscribomatic to send messages has the pitfall of it's owner only being able to use it to send announcements for one group, meaning that if they have to have work arounds for several groups they may end up with several of the free alternate accounts and have to switch between them for what should be a simple thing... advertising.

SL Blogpost: Land Price Reductions, New Premium Perks, and Pricing Changes
Bixyl Shuftan's article: http://slnewser.blogspot.com/2019/05/linden-lab-raising-price-of-premium.html
Second Life Forum Discussion Thread: https://community.secondlife.com/forums/topic/437783-what-are-your-opinions-on-the-new-land-price-reductions-new-premium-perks-and-pricing-changes

Early Spring Library Limerick Contest

This time in the usual Valentine slot of events we are looking for limericks here in the library. All submissions will be recorded for the video archive and to play over the library stream. This writing contest originates in Second Life so prize funds are disbursed in the currency of that. Forum submissions if made should be made on the Intersim Library forum, linked below in Submission Location.

Early Spring Library Limerick Contest
Open: Now
Deadline Midnight SLT Mar 18, 2019

=Suggested theme: "Anything"=
Although this is the time I usually look for Valentine-ish, friendshippy, and Irish sorts of stuff there is no theme this year. Let your imagination soar. Send in your best limericks of any sort as long as it is PG-13 or lower in rating. Best one takes the prize!

=How Do We Limerick?=
According to wikipedia:
A limerick is a form of verse, usually humorous and frequently rude, in five-line, predominantly anapestic[1] meter with a strict rhyme scheme of AABBA, in which the first, second and fifth line rhyme, while the third and fourth lines are shorter and share a different rhyme.[2] The following example is a limerick of unknown origin:

The limerick packs laughs anatomical
Into space that is quite economical.
But the good ones I've seen
So seldom are clean
And the clean ones so seldom are comical.[3]

Do your best! It's ok if it doesn't quiiiite fit the usual meter.

=Prize=
Staring Prize 1000$L. This may increase if donations are sent into the prizebank.
Each entrant will also receive 25$L for their trouble, one payment per entrant. In the future this may go up, but for now it is a minimum of this.

All submissions will be archived with the Trotsdale Library and Intersim Library Network. Text will be read and recorded for video and sound archive. Images will be incorporated into video archival as well. Winners will be announced late March. If no one enters then the prize money in the prize pool will roll over to the next contest. 

Prize money will be disbursed from Hanaarashi Resident, an alt controlled by Amehana Ishtari (Arashi).

Donations to the prize pool can be sent to Hanaarashi Resident or sent via one of the prizepool book piles. 

Merchandise or service prize donations please message Amehana Ishtari with a notecard stating what your donation will be and what you would like to see it go out as prize for.

=Submitting=
There are several ways to enter:
* Use the forum archival thread and post your entry below the first message. Paste your writing into the full reply box, or if an art piece you can upload and link to it, or attach to the post.
* Place your entry into a notecard and drop it into one of the listed drop boxes. For other contests: if you are submitting visual art for the contest inworld you will need to upload the image and then place this in a notecard if presenting via SL or into your forum post. You can also present both together if you note that you are doing an illustrated writing piece. If you can't afford to upload to SL then upload to your host of choice and paste the link into the card or into for forum submission. Use the enclosed template(s) to help make sure that your entry is well marked after renaming to include your legacy name.

* Each entrant can send in up to three (3) limericks.

---

Template:
PLEASE RENAME THIS CARD BEFORE SUBMITTING.

Card name: (Your Legacy Name): Limerick 2019 Entry

Please ensure your entry is set as transfer, mod, and copy (full perms).

Display Name:
Legacy Name:
Preferred Pen Name:
Title:

=Written Works=
Put your limerick(s) below here:

---

=Submission Locations=
Last time there were boxes out in 6 communities but most were not used. In order to simplify for pickup there will be fewer inworld locations this time in addition to forum entries. You do not have to put your submission in them all, these are provided for convenience. Please do not send directly to Amehana.
forum: intersimlibrary.freeforums.net/thread/69/early-spring-limerick-contest-2019
Inworld:
1. Trotsdale: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Trotsdale/22/156/25
2. Nisa/Ibexia maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ontario/211/11/63
3. Luskwood: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lusk/216/169/62
4. Neighberry: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Neighberry/47/76/22
5. Neighberry #2:http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Neighberry/130/84/23
2
~Amehana Ishtari (Arashi), Trotsdale Library Curator
Library Forum: intersimlibrary.freeforums.net
Library Website: intersimlibraryresources.weebly.com
Youtube Channel archival: www.youtube.com/Amehana

Contest Sponsor: THG StarDragon Publishing

Read more: http://intersimlibrary.freeforums.net/thread/69/early-spring-limerick-contest-2019#ixzz5dElX8eCl

Organization Updates on a few things.

Deviant Art Gallery and Second Life

My (Teresa Garcia) DeviantArt Gallery has been rearranged so that each media that I work with has a folder. There are still folders for such things as people, mountain scenes, foxes and the like for those looking for examples of particular items. I do not yet have folders for the particular styles that I work in for art beyond the media types there. However within Second Life the main outlet for THG StarDragon Publishing in the main building of the Nisa parcel in the Ontario sim does have a display up with art styles. This display when clicked leads to my gallery. The new outlet in the Neighberry sim also has a display up. There are two slots left to fill that I need to choose examples for or create newer examples for.

What I do in Second Life for the publishing company is combined with an avatar modding, clothing, and spiritual items shop as when I first started Arashiryuu Productions inworld I had noticed a niche that needed more items. That first "I'm not finding a lot of Shinto related things, I shall have to make some for myself I suppose" eventually is what led to "I could bring THG StarDragon Publishing inworld since there are notecard books, maybe I'll eventually get into other book forms within this virtual world platform." Not all of the books are ported into this world and this method of publication.

A new addition to the Ontario/Dreaming Twilight shop and the Neighberry shop will also be a board linking to where to get the books I've illustrated (next to my art samples since I take on commissions). After a recount of prims in the Trotsdale sim's market area shop cart I will likely place one there as well near the small sample board.

I am going to be closing the Saddlewood location once the rent on that shop runs out. In the real/analog realm (not room) I'm still operating out of my house.

Second Life outlets

Dreaming Twilight (Ontario, Main Shop): http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ontario/245/155/58
Trotsdale: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Trotsdale/99/200/24
Neighberry: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Neighberry/47/76/22

Current Projects

I am working on the preliminary linework for a children's book entitled "Minnie's Decision" by Patsy E. Stackhouse, which I hope both the publisher and author will enjoy as it is one going through PenIt! Publications via my illustration contract with them.

I am still working my way through getting the audio for "The Ian's Realm Saga Trilogy" by D.L. Gardner finished. This is to be published independently as per my last conversation with her.

There is always poetry to be doing, I need to catch up on my goal for that. The poems get posted to my Patreon, but I need to see what needs catching up in my D.A. regarding poetry.

I intend to work more on Selkies' Skins: Temple and Skinquest. My vacation did not have much writing time. I was rather busy with other things and very firmly in an analog world. There were people there. *chuckles*

I am still open for editing and/or layout projects. I am still open for publishing projects. I've not done much in the way of work the last couple months due to having to devote most/all of my waking hours to undoing what happens when one works on projects so much there is not time to do laundry/clean. I need to pay for a dryer repair and bills somehow. Nose back to the grindstone it is.

Additional

I'd like to remind other authors and illustrators that have THG StarDragon Publishing projects that if you have done other things on your own or with other publishers please do NOT feel shy about letting me know so that I can get links to your additional work put up. Getting the information for the main site updated (oh... that means I have to find the file for the whole site and do code...) and working with the webmaster (the ever so wonderful Rowan Wookey, who is also a very good friend) to have that updated again and additional pages added is one of the goals for this year as there are some adjustments to implement.